Slender: The Arrival
Slender: The Arrival is a video game developed and published by Blue Isle Studios and distributed by Parsec Productions as the the full, fleshed-out version of Slender: The Eight Pages. It was released on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X on March 26, 2013. Like its predecessor, the game is based on the Something Awful forums' creation, the Man Slender Man. Gameplay The majority of the game takes place in abandoned areas (house, defunct mine, etc.), each with different objectives. Slender: The Arrival uses similar mechanics to its predecessor, The Eight Pages. The character is armed only with a flashlight. This limited defense forces a sense of helplessness, as the best way to survive in the game is to run whenever in danger. The Slender Man's behavior changes slightly between levels. In level one, it is seen at most, once. In level two, it most often teleports off-screen or just out of the character's line of sight, but is capable of appearing directly in front of the player. It is observed that its motion centers around following the player, but consists largely of jumping from place to place, the inconvenience of which is increased as each of the eight pages are collected. Its behavior is much the same as this in level four, except more actively. In level three, it pursues much less aggressively, serving less as the main antagonist of the level and more as a scare tactic, though one capable of teleporting directly in front of the player and ending the game. In this level, the main antagonist is a girl who chases the player (most often following her path directly, but has been seen teleporting. It is unknown whether this is a glitch or an in-game mechanic). The only way of subduing her is by focusing the flashlight (on its second setting) on her. While looking at the Slender Man, the camera succumbs to electronic distortions such as static, blurring, color spots, audio distortion, etc, which obstructs the players vision unless facing away, and far enough from it. When caught, the death screen is also different; while in Slender: The Eight Pages, the player saw a white static background with Slender Man's faceless head, the one for Slender: The Arrival is black, with an overhead-lit and color-distorted hue. There are also new choices in difficulty (which must first be unlocked by completing the game once) being easy, normal, and hardcore. The differences being that hardcore allows the flashlight to run out, enemies are more aggressive and the player's stamina runs out quickly. Easy has infinite flashlight, a great deal of stamina, and the enemies are not very aggressive. Plot Chapter 1: Prologue The game starts with Lauren visiting her friend Kate after her mother has died. After parking her car at the head of the driveway, she walks down a path to Kate's home but finds the house left open. Kate is nowhere to be found, and there are drawings and wall-scratchings hinting at the Slender Man. When Lauren finds Kate's room, a drawn-out scream is heard from the back gate. Some people choose to believe that the scream came from none other than Kate, who had fled the house a bit before Lauren showed up but was caught by the Slender Man. Taking a flashlight with her, Lauren leaves the building to investigate. Chapter 2: The Eight Pages Lauren explores the nearby Oakside Park, collecting 8 pages which are clues to Kate's disappearance. As she collects them, the Slender Man begins to pursue her aggressively. When she collects all 8 pages she encounters the Slender Man. The Slender Man grabs her, but she breaks free and starts to sprint away as fast as she can, but she mysteriously blacks out. Chapter 3: Into the Abyss Lauren awakes in a field close to the Kullman Mining Facility. As she explores the closed valley, she finds that she must enter a dark tunnel into a mountain that, as is alluded to in a collectible newspaper article, was created by Kullman Mining Co. after purchasing mineral rights from the owners of Oakside Park. As she enters, Lauren sees a sign that instructs that in the event of a power-outage, six generators must be activated in order to power the emergency lift and escape. As she powers the generators, she realizes that she is being chased by a figure in a white hoody and a mask. As all six generators are activated, Lauren activates the lift and is risen to the top of the mining shaft, transitioning to Chapter 4. On Hardcore difficulty, Lauren has to collect gas canisters before activating the generators. Chapter 4: Flashback After making her way out of the mine, Lauren explores the beautiful landscape as she continues to collect evidence relating to Kate. As she traverses, she finds a small building, inside which there is a TV with a girl scribbling on a sheet of paper. The video is of none other than Kate, and shows what happened to her. In the flashback, Kate has to secure her home by closing 8 windows and/or doors from the Slender Man. During this process, she sees the Slender Man and tries to hide in her room. Confronted by the Slender Man, she crashes out the bedroom window and escapes to the nearby park, ending Chapter 4 and the video recording simultaneously. However, some video game players on the internet found out that this level CAN cause a crash if the player DOES NOT collect the 8 pages that CR left behind before. This crash can be noticed if Kate doesnt jump out of the window. Chapter 5: The Arrival After the flashback ends, Lauren makes her way up the mountain and through a cave, where she realizes the surrounding forest has been set on fire. She charges toward the radio tower that she thinks will save her from the Slender Man. Along the way she dodges flames, falling trees, and a very aggressive Slender Man. Once inside the radio tower building, Lauren discovers a locked door, where a key must be found to unlock it. After finding it, footsteps can be heard and Lauren is forced to proceed to a dead-end hallway. The leading door slams behind her, and as she reads the writing etched on the wall, she discovers a dead body of who is presumably CR (a friend of Kate's heavily mentioned in the game's collectable items), as well as the body's video camera. Once the camera is played, there are multiple knocks on the door behind Lauren. The screen flashes violently as the game ends. Normal Ending Lauren walks to the end of the hall and finds the corpse of a man, presumably Kate's friend CR, lying next to a video camera. As she plays the audio on the camera, she hears Kate and CR screaming. The audio ends suddenly. The fire near the door where Lauren entered is blown out, and the door can be heard being violently knocked upon. Lauren's camera, near dead, begins to flash of incoherent shapes and loud noises as the game comes to an abrupt end. Hardcore Ending If the player beats the game, a Hardcore difficulty mode will unlock. Completing Chapter 5 on this difficulty will result in a slightly altered ending from Normal or Easy mode. Directly following where the game ends on both other modes, red flashes are seen across the screen (also known as a "series of symbols"). Lauren wakes up in the now-destroyed forest on the ground. Her camera's batteries then presumably die. This is meant to imply that she lived after her encounters, resulting in a slightly less melancholy ending than before. Extra Level: "Genesis" An extra level is introduced in v.1.3, and takes place before Chapter 4. In it, Kate is wandering around a park at night, when she finds a page with disturbing images and text on it. The Slender Man begins to stalk her. When Kate finds all of the Eight pages scattered around the park, Slender Man catches up to her. But, rather than abducting her, he simply says (probably through telepathy) "I have plans for you, Kate". This level serves as a mostly unaltered remake of Slender: The Eight Pages; some of the landmarks from the original have been re-rendered using higher quality graphics. Secret Level Secret Level There is a secret level; accessible by walking towards a swing set in front of the house in Chapter 1, playing a piano that is inside the house until the message, "This sounds familiar," appears, then walking towards the missing child poster on a tree in the front of the house. The secret level begins with the Slender Man or Charlie Matheson Jr. (the child on the poster) saying they, "want to play a game," and that the player should, "find them." The player is prevented from pausing or exiting the game in this level and is either Lauren, or possibly CR, due to being set on fire later in the level. You begin in front of the house during the daytime, however everything is distorted heavily. If the player tries to go into a room, they are teleported to another room. When the protagonist enters a room where the door is locked, they will eventually be captured by the Slender Man, and a voice will tell the protagonist that he "likes you" and wants to "play with you." You are then taken back to the Main Menu. If the player attempts to continue by checking the option, "Stage Selection," all the stages will be replaced with the missing child poster seen before. When continuing to the second stage, the voice tells you that he "will find you instead." You are in front of the house where there are a series of distortions everywhere you move, and it is now nighttime. In this stage you wander throughout the house, where at some point after hearing many strange noises and growls throughout the house, the screen will cut to black and you are "found." Then the player is then placed outside, immobile, and set on fire. The Slender Man will slowly teleport closer and closer until the game cuts to black with the image of the distorted missing child poster in front of the Slender Man's faceless head. The last thing that comes up after that is the voice stating "You are dead." The player is then returned to the Main Menu, and the only options there are "Start Game" and "Exit." Pressing "Start Game" leads you to a scene where the protagonist seems to be looking up at the sky. The screen cuts to black once again, and the missing child poster combined with the Slender Man will appear like it did at the end of the secret level just before. This is the only thing accessible in the game, and you can't seem to do anything else at this point. When you exit the game however, the game will reset and all five stages return back to normal, no longer with the missing child poster. Characters Lauren - the game's protagonist and playable character. She is visiting Kate when she discovers that Kate was attacked the night before, and subsequently sets out to find her. Kate - friend of Lauren, she becomes the secondary antagonist for most of the game, but is also playable in "Chapter 4". Her mother has recently died and she has decided to sell the house, prompting Lauren's visit. Prior to the events of the game, she had visions of the 'Slender Man' who she shared with her friend CR. The night before the events of the game, she was attacked in her home but managed to escape, as revealed in "Chapter 4". It is believed that she was subsequently turned to serve as his "proxy", or an assistant of sorts. If so, the mysterious hooded creature in Chapter 3 may be Kate, because the creature was trying to kill Lauren, assisting The Slender Man. CR - friend of Kate, with whom he shared her visions of the Slender Man. He and Kate would play in the woods together as children, but when Kate's Mom found out he stopped visiting. Despite asking Kate to keep his existence a secret from Lauren, he advised Kate to call her when her Mom died. CR is found at the end of the game, his charred corpse next to a camcorder. It is implied that CR is the protagonist of the Secret Level, and it shows how he died, caught by the Slender Man and set on fire. The Slender Man - the faceless antagonist of the game. Facing him causes the camera to glitch and distort, intensifying as the player gets closer. In the game, it is also shown that it can turn its victims into "proxies", or assistants of sorts. Charlie Matheson Jr. - The missing child. The missing poster can be found outside Kate's house near the woods. In the secret level, the Slender Man catches Lauren (possibly CR) which shows a pop-up of his face and the missing poster in front of his face. Some players suggest that Charlie is the Slender Man himself due to his appearance in the secret level, but no evidence has been presented beyond fandom guessing. Development and release Slender: The Arrival is developed by Parsec Productions and Blue Isle Studios for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac. The developers are also considering a release for the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3, Nintendo eShop for the Wii U as well as mobile devices and Linux computers. They are also to begin a Steam Greenlight campaign, for Steam in the near future. Eight screenshots were released on the official Slender: The Arrival website, followed by four on the Blue Isle Studio website. A trailer was released for the game on December 23, 2012. On December 1, 2012, Blue Isle Studios announced its partnership with the Marble Hornets team, a YouTube channel known for its horror videos which heavily featured Slender Man, and helped to shape the modern version of the Slender Man. Joseph DeLage, Tim Sutton and Troy Wagner wrote the script for the final version of the game. In the end credits, Eric "Victor Surge" Knudsen, the original creator of the Slender Man, is credited as an executive producer. On February 9, 2013, Slender: The Arrival was opened to the public for beta testing. If one pre-ordered the game, they were entitled to a free demo of the game. Pre-orders were $5 each, but once the game was released, it would be $10. The game was released March 26, 2013 exactly at midnight. Reception Slender: The Arrival received mixed reviews, receiving praise for its soundtrack, tense atmosphere and scares, but also criticism for the shorter than expected campaign length and repetitive gameplay. It received a score of 68.18% on GameRankings and 66/100 on Metacritic. In a positive review, The Escapist said "you may have mixed feelings about its brevity and the repetitive mechanics, but it's certainly a well-built game that, above all, is scary to play" and gave the game a score of 4.5 stars out of 5. VVGtv gave the game a score of 8.8/10, praising the game's graphics, sound, gameplay (with the exception of a few elements) and mystery element, while criticising the short story, adding that "if you played The Eight Pages and are looking for the next scare to really get your adrenaline pumping and to get you to yell like you did when you first saw Slenderman right behind you, this game will not disappoint". GameSpot gave the game a score of 8.5/10, calling it "one of the most terrifying games in recent memory". In a negative review, VideoGamer said The Arrival is a "frustrating game, not just because it can be occasionally unfair but because these guys clearly have an idea how to promote fear. Running around playing kiss chase with a trans-dimensional being doesn't really cut it." and gave it a score of 4/10. The Metro also criticized the lack of varied gameplay, stating, "the first game had little real gameplay and this sequel does nothing to expand things, just repeat the experience often enough to rob it of its power." and gave it a score of 6/10. SOURCE Gallery Charlie Matheson Jr. missing poster.jpg Slenderthearrival5.jpg Slenderthearrival3.jpg Slenderthearrival4.jpg Slenderthearrival2.png